While playing football with my two young children at the north Curtin ovals last weekend I was horrified when a rogue golfer clubbed balls within metres of them.
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Armed with a driver, his full-swing shots soared into the air with total disregard for public safety and nearby families.
![The only place for a golf ball is a golf course. The only place for a golf ball is a golf course.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/WSM4dCumvPJjnaG3ngKbmZ/4b31107c-40f5-4eba-a6cf-9abd716ba155.jpg/r0_109_2126_1304_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
This dangerous activity must be prohibited on ACT ovals by the Barr government so we are on par with other states, including NSW.
Ovals are not fairways. Golfers should be restricted to club courses and ranges before someone is badly injured.
Brad Watts, Curtin
It's a mystery
It's beyond my understanding why the interstate bus terminal is located at the Jolimont Centre.
This is one of the entry points to Australia's federal capital. The location on Northbourne Avenue, a very busy road, means stopping or setting down is almost impossible.
As if to make it more difficult, out of approximately 10 parking bays five are taken up by the taxi rank.
To make things worse there is a hotel on the same block. How much better it would be to have the terminal on the Federal Highway just before Northbourne Avenue. There's plenty of land where a decent parking and set down area could be built.
One could catch the light rail or taxi to the CBD. Perhaps it would be logical to also locate the Canberra Tourist Centre there as well. This would free up more space on Northbourne Avenue.
The Jolimont Centre served us well when we were a 'Bush Capital' but it is totally inappropriate for a modern bustling city.
Several weeks ago I had to pick up a friend coming from overseas at about 10 pm and I found to my amazement that the place was closed and I had to stumble in the dark to the back of the centre where the buses park. I felt quite ashamed to welcome my visitor to this sort of place.
First impressions are important. Remember the tourist dollar is important for Canberra.
Peter Fenton, Karabar
True genius
David Lander (Letters, August 21) said: "Scott Morrison is a ... genius at political nonsense and waffle". The report "PM: get used to US-China trade war" (August 21, p 11) contains a rather good example.
In an interview on the Seven Network on August 20, Mr Morrison, speaking of China's economic success, said "Having achieved that critical mass of economic performance, the rules that apply to all of us, the United States, have got to apply to China as well. And the rules-based order where it comes to how technology is handled, how partnerships are formed, how payments are made. How you reduce emissions for example, I mean we should all be subject to the same rules now."
If you can follow that twisted and gap-ridden logic and expression your understanding of the English language is much more flexible than mine.
Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
A hard rain....
It is difficult to pick the most depressing of recent news items; the burning of fires in the Arctic and the Amazon that are visible in satellite images; the treatment of our Pacific neighbours by our Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister; Donald Trump's bid for Greenland (which becomes more valuable as it loses its ice cover); the destruction of old growth forests in NSW and further loss of koala habitat in Queensland and NSW or the change in direction by a Queensland Labor Government to give more support to coal.
Scientists keep changing the time left that humans have to avoid a climate catastrophe. Recent events show that this time is only going to get exponentially less .
Robyn Vincent, McKellar
Explanation sought
Steve Biddulph (Letters, August 21, p26) explains the question the Catholic Church and those who have supported Pell's defence must now answer: what damage would a further appeal do to the victims of institutional abuse, and the trust people would like to have in the church, given the insubstantial nature of the grounds offered so far? Like the toss of a coin, it could fall either way.
![Should George Pell put others first and protect the vulnerable? Picture: Jason South Should George Pell put others first and protect the vulnerable? Picture: Jason South](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc76r5mwf1uop8tigkh5j.jpg/r0_212_4156_2558_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The questions are moral, theological and pastoral. As Archbishop Comensoli has argued, there are other loyalties for a bishop or priest, and one is to put others first and protect the vulnerable, with great generosity. George Pell can take comfort in being one of a faith where suffering when innocent is to be expected at times.
Sue Edmondson, Kambah
Response please
There has been a deafening silence from the Greens in response to Doug Hurst's erudite letter "Greens off the mark" (Letters, August 19). Is it simply because the Greens have been reassured by Doug's assertion that "I don't hate anyone", or is it because they are unable to respond to Doug's identification of the litany of Greens' orchestrated scare campaigns that continue to retard development in Australia?
Or is it because, thanks to a number of recent actions by the Greens, most notably Bob Brown's Stop Adani convoy and his wind farm opposition that the Greens, always so self righteous, have been outed as being hypocritical and at least as NIMBY as the rest of us.
Meanwhile, in the ACT we will long suffer the effects of the Greens disproportionate influence on local government decisions.
Their pet project, the red elephant that runs overcrowded between Gungahlin and Civic because bus services have been cut back, has already deprived much needed funds for more urgent and more important projects including fixing our healthcare system, providing just arrangements for social housing, and addressing basic infrastructure shortfalls.
And if that's not bad enough, the Greens want another train set.
Have a look at your next rates bill and decide if we can afford this because, be in no doubt, we will be the ones paying for this next self-indulgence by the Greens.
Ian Pearson, Barton
A scapegoat
Angus Taylor is scapegoating renewable generation for the failure of his political party to keep up with and ride the switch to renewable power generation.
The solution is not newer, dirtier coal, (large, non-renewable, obsolete-before-built few-point sources) but mastering the new reality of small, renewable, ever-improving distributed multi-source generation, supplemented by storage.
Incidentally, the NSW government, unlike the Morrison government, is actively working towards this.
George Butt, Oxley
Refugees in pain
Where is the rules-based order regarding the safety, health and welfare of refugee men and women held on Manus and Nauru Islands?
Following the outcome of the appeal by Cardinal George Pell, our Prime Minister spoke of the compassion and care needed to assist survivors of institutional sexual abuse. Does he call for the compassion and care required to assist those people held without trial on Manus and Nauru Islands?
The Governor of Manus Island acknowledges his inability to manage the acute mental health crises being experienced by refugee men on the island.
- Rose Costelloe, Cook
The Governor of Manus Island acknowledges his inability to manage the acute mental health crises being experienced by refugee men on the island. Médecins Sans Frontières, which operated for 11 months on Nauru, reported last November that "close to one-third of (their) refugee and asylum seeker patients had attempted suicide, while 12 patients were diagnosed with the rare psychiatric condition of 'resignation syndrome'."
The Prime Minister has a bill before Parliament repealing Dr Kerryn Phelp's MedEvac legislation. This law enables doctors to recommend the transfer here, of people on these islands, if their health condition is unable to be treated where they are held.
The Minister concerned is able to disagree with the doctors where there is evidence of a security risk. This has not happened to date.
Rose Costelloe, Cook
What a mess
A half demolished fenced off house on the corner of Livingston Avenue and Weavell St in Kambah has been left for many years. Local residents had a protest published in The Canberra Times in the past year or so and I don't blame them.
Are the rates being paid? This is dangerous. I hope its not a fluffy house being as exposed as it is. Is the owner deceased?
This house must be known to someone in the Barr government. Many efforts have been made via ABC Ministers talkback to make Mr Barr himself aware.
I think it is time for for him to take some action.
Brian Hale, Wanniassa
Vale Tim
Had Tim Fischer not died prematurely from an illness, he might have equally succumbed to heartbreak in witnessing the abyss to which his successors have this decade sunk. The coup de grace, beyond even the Nationals' contemporary enthusiasm for trashing our land and water, could well have been Michael McCormack's astounding Pacific islanders fruit-picking comment in relation to climate change and sea level rise.
Alex Mattea, Sydney
TO THE POINT
CALL TO ARMS
The new ACT coat of arms should be a magpie rampant on a field of dead kangaroos. The bearers should be two Federal politicians with heads in the clouds.
David Walker, Ainslie
PROTEST ON WEEKENDS
If Ms Berry and her department are so keen to support school kids protesting against climate change such protests should be on a Saturday or Sunday so as not to interrupt their learning. How many would still be concerned then?
Michael Attwell, Dunlop
WELL DONE ENGLAND
A well-deserved test win for England after the the world cup was decided by an umpiring error. This test was also won off an apparent umpiring error even though we squandered chances. I hope the Ashes won't be decided on another.
Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW
HERITAGE FARCE
The Canberra Times has reported on the disappointment of people trying to get property heritage listed by the ACT Government. Don't bother. Much of Reid is heritage listed and, despite numerous requests by the residents association for the government to enforce the laws it shows little inclination to do so.
D Swieringa, Reid
IT'S HEATING UP
Last July was the hottest month on record ever. The Canberra Times buried this in an article on page 37 of the August 17 edition. This lack of media interest is one of the reasons I think civilisation is doomed.
Rod Holesgrove, Crace
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says private patients get preference for elective surgery over public patients. The average wait for health fund members is half that for public patients. Is this not why people have private cover? Why else would you pay the high premiums?
Don Sephton, Greenway
HITLER'S PLAN FOR US
Alex Mattea (Letters, August 26) says the "Battle for Australia" from 1942 to 1945 is the only war we should have fought in the last 100 years. Not so. Hitler is on record in his table talk as saying after Britain was beaten he would let the Japanese have Australia.
Bill Deane, Chapman
PELL APPEAL CALL
As a longstanding practising lawyer I am amazed at the George Pell conviction. Criminal standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. Justice Weinberg, a former DPP, is the much more experienced criminal judge on that bench. His reasons supporting acquittal are compelling. I hope the High Court will intervene.
Johann Sheller, Forrest
VOICE OF AUTHORITY
Just when the Pell saga was appearing to be all over bar the shouting, Justice Weinberg whispers authoritative dissent.
M. F. Horton, Adelaide, SA
TRUMP'S DILEMMA
President Trump won't visit Greenland as he can't buy it. If he won't visit any country he can't buy then he will have few places to visit. Most countries can no longer be bought or sold for a few blankets or the $24 worth of trinkets it cost for Manhattan.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Vic
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